Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy creator Douglas Adams' other great work of anarchic science fiction, Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, comes to the BBC this fall/winter, as a one-hour pilot. But what happens if Dirk gets an ongoing series?

From the sound of things, the first 60-minute Dirk Gently episode will be an adaptation, at least in part, of the first book — the only plot summary so far is that Dirk tries "to solve the disappearance of a cat from an old lady's house." It's being shown on BBC4 — not exactly the most high-profile channel, it must be said — and the script is written by Howard Overman, creator of Misfits and Vexed.

If the one-hour pilot does well, the BBC will consider commissioning an ongoing series. And given there are only two Dirk Gently books to adapt (plus Salmon of Doubt), I wonder how long it takes before Overman and other writers have to resort to creating their own Dirk Gently stories. It could be awesome, or terrible, or some baffling mixture of the two, but just the prospect of getting more Adamsian weirdness on television again is thrilling. No clue who's playing Dirk Gently yet — the above image is Harry Enfield, who played him in the radio adaptations. [Bleeding Cool via Den Of Geek]